


Trust

by gracedameron



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Gen, Kanera implied, after Trials of the Darksaber, flashback fic ooohhooooh, my daughter i love her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 13:58:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9444194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracedameron/pseuds/gracedameron
Summary: "Remember how hard it was for her to trust us?" - Hera Syndulla: Trials of the Darksaber(spoilers?) for Trials of the Darksaber, flashback/missing scene from that episode.





	

Trust

*

“Remember how long it took her to trust us?”

Kanan stepped back from the comm-station and thought a moment. He did remember. It took Sabine months to open up. In the five-or-so years that she’d been part of the Ghost crew...their family...she’d really opened up. She’d gone from a young, hurt, closed off young girl to a strong, independent young woman. She’d changed so much, all of it in a good way.

Sabine was only thirteen when he and Hera found her. He remembered how broken she was. How much she didn’t want to join them. How they refused to let her leave.

*

“Go talk to her,” Kanan nudged Hera, “It’s your turn.”

Hera gave him a look. “Since when are we taking turns?” she mused.

“Since I’ve brought her food like the last eight meals, and she still ignores me.” Kanan pointed out.

“You cook the meals,” Hera told him, a hand lightly on his chest, “You deliver them, love.”

Kanan smirked, gesturing with his head toward the hallway. “Either way, you should go talk to her.”

Hera sighed, kicking her feet off the table. “If Sabine wants to open up to us, she will. It’s not fair of us to force her before she’s ready.”

Kanan crossed his arms. “She’s been here two weeks and has barely talked to us the entire time. She needs to pull her weight like Zeb, you and I.”

“Kanan,” Hera admonished him, “She’s a kid. Give her some time. We don’t know what she’s dealing with. She was in a pretty bad place when we found her.”

Kanan sighed a little and nodded. Hera stood from the table and started down the hall, knocking on Sabine’s door before pressing the switch to open it.

“You doing okay in there, Sabine?” Hera asked gently, leaning in the doorway. Sabine’s bunk was dark, her few personal belongings were lying in a chair in front of the small desk and hadn’t been touched in the entire two weeks she’d been with Hera, Kanan, Zeb and Chopper. She hadn’t really left her room that entire time either. Her bounty hunting armor was sitting in a pile next to the desk, basically gathering dust.

“Mmhmm,” Sabine said with a nod, glancing at Hera from where she laid on the bed.

“Well, Kanan and I are going on a supply run this afternoon. Do you need anything?” She offered, and Sabine shook her head.

“No.” Sabine said simply.

Hera sighed, looking at Sabine curiously. “Don’t you need new clothes or something?” she asked gently, “I can pick you up something, if you want.”

“I don’t want anything.” Sabine said firmly. “No thank you.”

Hera frowned but nodded. “Well, if you change your mind, we’re leaving at 16:00, okay?”

Sabine nodded and Hera left the room, wishing she could do something to help the hurting young girl.

“So,” Kanan teased, “How’d it go? Did you make a breakthrough?”

Hera rolled her eyes, walking past him. “I’m done talking with you.”

“And obviously, so is Sabine.”

Hera turned back around to glare at him, and Kanan gave her a little smirk that Hera refused to melt to.

“You think you can do better, Mister Jedi?” she poked his chest, hard. “Go ahead.”

Kanan shrugged, glancing back at the hallway. “I’ll try her before we leave.”

Hera continued past him into the cockpit and Kanan smirked at her as he watched her go.

Hera and Zeb were organizing a supply priority list so they could use what little credits they had intelligently, and Kanan kept his word and attempted to convince Sabine to open up again.

“Hey,” Kanan said as he entered Sabine’s bunk. “We’re about to leave. You sure you don’t want to tag along?” he offered, and Sabine looked up from where she was sitting at the desk, her backpack opened for the first time that Kanan had noticed.

“No, I’m fine.” Sabine said flatly.

Kanan stepped behind her and glanced over her shoulder. “What are you doing?” he asked, and Sabine quickly shoved the book that had been in front of her into her bag again.

“Nothing.”

“Are you drawing?”

“No.”

“It’s good. Are you an artist?” Kanan pried, and Sabine narrowed her eyes at him.

“Does it matter what I am?” she asked, and Kanan shrugged.

“Does to me,” Kanan told her honestly. “You like to draw?”

Sabine hesitated a long while before she nodded.

“Can I see?”

“NO.” She snapped quickly, and Kanan tried not to feel offended. He held his hands up in surrender.

“Okay, okay. You sure you don’t want to come with us?” he offered again and she shook her head firmly.

“Fine, you can stay, but Hera and I want you to do security with Chopper while we’re out. If anyone gives you trouble, you can raise us on this,” he tossed a commlink at her and she caught it, looking at him curiously.

“You trust me to guard your ship?” she sounded surprised.

Kanan nodded. “You haven’t given us reason not to trust you,” he pointed out.

“You don’t even know me,” she countered. “How can you trust me?”

Kanan looked her over. She tucked a lock of her shoulder length dark hair behind her ear. She looked much younger all of the sudden, like a kid, not like a soldier or wanted criminal. She didn’t look like a mandalorian bounty hunter, or an explosives expert. She looked like a regular 14 year old kid, who’d been through a lot more than any kid her age should. 

“We don’t need to know everything about you to trust you, Sabine.” Kanan said gently. “The Empire hurt you. That’s all we know, and that’s all we need to know. We’ve all been hurt by the Empire. That’s why we’re here.”

Sabine looked Kanan over a few moments before she nodded, looking to the commlink in her hands.

“Okay.” she said simply and Kanan smiled at her a little before he left.

“Alright,” Kanan said, clapping his hands together as he found Hera and Zeb in the hangar bay, finishing inventory of their cargo bay. “Ready to get some supplies?”

“Is Sabine coming?” Zeb asked, and Kanan shook his head.

“Nah, I left her in charge of the Ghost with Chop.”

“And she’s going to do it?” Hera sounded impressed, and Kanan flashed her a grin.

“I’m very convincing.” he told her, “And, she wants us to pick something up for her while we’re out.”

“She does?” Hera sounded skeptical this time.

“Well, she doesn’t know it yet, but yeah, she does.”

Hera’s eyes narrowed and she shook her head as she, Kanan and Zeb closed up the Ghost and left the hangar bay. Sabine glanced out the viewport and watched them go and looked to the droid in the corner, watching her warily. She was tempted to steal the ship and run, continue running, to the end of the galaxy where no one could find her. Not the Empire, not the Mandalorians, not the Black Sun, no bounty hunters, no one.

But Kanan trusted her. Hera trusted her. They wanted to help. Maybe, for once, she should let them.

~

When the crew returned from the supply run without a hitch, Sabine gave Kanan his commlink back and retreated back to her room. He and Hera both met her there a short while later and put a small crate on the floor next to her bed.

“What’s that?” she asked, confused.

“Paint.” Kanan said simply, kicking the lid of the crate so Sabine could see the rainbow of colors inside.

“Kanan said you like art,” Hera said simply. “So do we. Any surface you find is yours to paint on. Ceiling, floor, walls...you want to paint it, you can.”

Sabine blinked. “Are you serious?”

Hera nodded. “We want you to make it your own,” she said, gesturing around the room.

Sabine looked emotional for a split second before she regained her neutral expression.

“Thank you.” she said simply. “But I don’t need to paint the walls. This is your ship.”

Kanan shrugged. “Well, hang on to the paint anyway, in case you change your mind.”

Sabine watched as Hera and Kanan left her room and the door slid shut and stared down at the crate of paint in surprise. No one had done something so nice for her before. They didn’t even know her. They told her she could paint on their walls and they didn’t even know a thing about her or where she was from or why she was running. Who does things like that?

Sabine looked away and left the crate where it was, shaking her head.

~

A few days later, Kanan and Hera were organizing their finances when they recognized a sound coming from Sabine’s sound. They heard the hiss of the spray cans, quickly followed by the scent of the spray paint, and it made both Kanan and Hera smile. She was painting. They listened closely as they heard Sabine shake the cans and spray the walls, and shake the cans and spray the walls again. And again. And again.

“Sounds like someone’s starting to enjoy her new hobby.” Kanan said, and Hera smiled.

“Mmm.” she looked over the info on her datapad and then met Kanan’s eyes. “Good call on the paint.”

“She’s really good. I saw her sketchbook.” Kanan said. “She needs to burn off steam somehow.”

“I think this is a great way to do it. And hopefully it’ll show her we’re here to help her, not hurt her.” Hera added.

Kanan put a hand on her shoulder. “I honestly think she knows.” he said seriously. “She’s stubborn. It’s herself she doesn’t trust.”  
Hera nodded thoughtfully and the two wordlessly went back to what they were working on, letting the sound of Sabine’s painting fill the silence between them.

*

Kanan turned his head back toward the comm-station and sighed a little.

“I remember,” He told Hera. “You’re right.”

Hera smirked, and Kanan could practically hear the pride in her voice as she said, “I usually am.” Hera crossed her arms. “Now go help her. Help her trust herself. You not trusting her is only going to hurt her more.”

Kanan’s lips formed a straight line. “I know,” he admitted. “I just...I want to make sure this is what she wants, not what we’re expecting of her.”

Hera nodded. “The choice is hers. She knows that we aren’t going to be upset with her if she decides she doesn’t want this.”

“It’s not that I worry about,” Kanan told Hera, straining to hear Sabine and Ezra arguing down the hill in the training camp. “It’s that she’ll be upset with herself.”

Hera nodded in understanding. She worried about that too. But Sabine knew that they trusted her wholeheartedly, and they trusted her to make the right choice, for herself, her people, and their family. And at the end of the day, Hera and Kanan would do anything in their power to help her do it.

*


End file.
